Winner of the 1997 Pulitzer prize, The National Book Critics' Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Award

'When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.'

'An astonishing book... completely mesmerizing - you can open it almost at random and find writing to make you gasp.' Sue Gaisford, Independent
'My harrowing book of the year award goes to Angela's Ashes... but it's well worth the haunt.' Joanna Trollope, Sunday Times